Only Time Will Tell
by jls62113
Summary: Rick and Aaron leave on a run, Michonne declined the invitation to join them. She needed to sort some things out and in doing so, remembered that she told Rick she would always be with him. This is a really short short after watching S7E5. Enjoy!


Aaron sat in the truck waiting for Rick. When he saw him come out of the house he started the car's engine. His heart went out to Rick after the events of the last week. He saw the strain it was taking on him and his family. He could understand Michonne's reaction because it had been his own for a brief moment, but changed after Negan's visit. Aaron wondered, as he watched Rick approach the truck, if his goodbye to Michonne had been fruitful as he had hoped. Rick got into the car and simply nodded his head and Aaron put the truck in gear and they were on their way.

After about ten minutes outside of Alexandria, Rick started talking about what they could possibly find where they were going, but Aaron had a question for him.

"Do you think she'll come join us?"

Rick clenched his jaw and looked out the passenger window.

"I don't know." He said finally. "She has her own mind and feels differently about all this than I do."

"Does she understand that right now this is how it is?"

"Yes she does, but she's having a hard time accepting it. Before I met her, she had been on her own since the beginning. When something is wrong she's used to taking care of it or getting away from it."

"She won't leave will she? If you don't mind me asking."

"I can't say. I'd like to think she wouldn't. I know how she feels about me, but after all that's gone on recently, it's hard to know if she'll stay."

Rick thought back on their goodbye and the way she had been over the last few days. Prowling around like a caged panther, angry and always close to tears. The last thing he thought she wanted was to be kissed, but he had been wrong. The kiss was everything to him, and exactly what he needed, but was it her way of saying goodbye because she was leaving? Rick shook that thought from his mind. If she was leaving, he would like to think she would have put it into words.

"She wants to fight. In the past, we were pretty much forced into fighting. We needed to fight just to get here, but we are few now and they are many. I have too many people to think about who'll be killed if we try and fight them right now."

"I understand. Eric thinks we should fight. I had to make him understand exactly what we're facing."

Rick was quiet for a few moments looking down at the scarred knuckles of his right hand.

"I'm afraid she sees me differently now. She's seen just about every side of me, and I haven't frightened her away. Anyone else would have run from me. She's never seen me back down or give up. She's seen me fight hard to get us all here, but the truth is, she was the heart that got us here, I was just the muscle."

Aaron laughed.

"It takes exactly that to make anything work; heart and a little raw strength."

"Negan scares me Aaron. If it were just me, he would have to kill me, but I won't let that happen to any of you."

"I know. I see here with me now the same man I met in that barn. Whatever you need to do to keep everyone safe, I'll support you, and I'd like to personally thank you for being the leader that you are and protecting us all. I can see what its cost you."

"I don't want it to cost me Michonne or my children."

"You won't let that happen. If there's a way to change things, you'll find it."

Aaron watched Rick carefully and how deep in thought he was. He would bet he was thinking about Michonne.

"It's clear you two love each other, and she will always be there for you. I've seen you two disagree before, like when she wanted to come to Alexandria and you didn't."

"This is not a disagreement Aaron, it's a different mindset. I'm looking at all this realistically. She is too, just differently. That might not make sense to you."

"It does." Aaron pulled the car over. "There were a few houses over here Daryl and I found but never checked out."

They got out of the car and Rick left a subtle clue indicating which direction they were going, just in case she decided to join them.

Michonne walked aimlessly around outside of the walls of Alexandria. It was difficult for her to spend any length of time inside the walls anymore. It used to be her home, one she shared with the man she loved and his two children, but now it belonged to someone else. If it wasn't for Rick, Carl and Judith, she would have left. She stopped suddenly hearing what she just thought. Her home was Rick, not the house behind the wall, and she had turned him down when he asked her to go with him. Without actually saying the words, he was asking her to help him. Help him get through the biggest trauma of his life.

"What were you thinking?" She said out loud.

She remembered being out on her own, but that's not how things are now. She committed her life to him, and realized she had put a condition to the love she felt for him. She told him she was with him. For how long? Just until a madman shows up and terrorizes them? Right now it seemed to her that she had broken her word with him.

She walked back to the road that led to the Alexandria gate. She noticed tracks from a leaky vehicle. When Eugene opened the gate, she continued to look at the tracks and remembered one of the Alexandria trucks leaked some kind of fluid yet to be determined, and she smiled sadly at the clear trail. That leak really should be fixed, but she was glad, for now, it was not.

She opened the gate and started on her way by foot. For her, at this moment, on foot served two purposes; when she found them they would only have one vehicle to return, and walking would give her the opportunity to figure a way to accept their new way of life as she promised Rick she was try to.

After about five miles she found the truck. At the back of the truck she looked down below the right side bumper and found what she was looking for, Rick's sign telling her which direction they went. He obviously hoped she would follow. She felt a real smile form on her face which she hadn't done in what seemed forever.

"Rick." She said talking into the walkie.

"Is everything alright?" Rick returned quickly.

"It is now."

Rick lowered his head and smiled.

"We're about two miles in from the road."

"Copy that." She said taking a deep breath to untie the knot in her chest.

"She's coming?" Aaron said hearing Michonne's voice.

"She's here." Rick said with an emotional nod.

Aaron smiled at Rick. Rick wiped his eye before the tear fell.

"I'm going out to meet her halfway."

"That's what I would do."

"I know." Rick said. "I've seen you when I was trying to stop you from being with Eric."

Aaron smiled again remembering when they all first met.

He saw her before she saw him. His paced slowed as he watched her. The sight of her always made him want to stop whatever he was doing just to watch her. She was incredible.

"I changed my mind." She said stopping several feet in front of him.

"You coming here means a lot to me." He said nodding. "Were you able to sort things out?"

"I'm still working on it." She said casting her eyes down and then up at him again. "What I did sort out is that regardless of what's ahead of us or how I feel about it, I belong with you."

He took a deep breath and nodded.

"Even though we feel differently about our situation?"

She swallowed hard and nodded. He looked at her feeling the same heartache she did.

"Because I don't want to do this without you, but I would because I have to. There are many lives at stake, not just mine, not just yours."

"I know." She said quietly.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes." She said near tears.

He closed the distance between them and he reached an arm around her shoulders and drew her to him.

"Are we going to be okay?" She said looking up at him with her eyes full of sadness.

"You and me, yes. Everything else, only time will tell,


End file.
